TURF OR CONSEQUENCES
Making Golf Fun on a golf course – the day that your face hurt from laughing. Do you remember what it cost, what your score was, or how long it took to play? Of course not. So how can we make golf more fun? Some have suggested that ick up any golf magazine. Go to any industry conference. we take the “Rock and Bowl” path. Loud music, lights, live bands, Turn on the Golf Channel. I guarantee you, that within 10 glow in the dark golf, shooters on every hole, and turn it into a pages, two seminars, or one hour of air time – someone will Coors Light Maxim Party – but that would get stale pretty quickly. be waxing eloquently about the state of our industry. They all I think we need to get back to our roots. I’d begin by eliminating conclude that golf is too expensive, too hard, and takes too long stroke play from recreational golf. Alister MacKenzie wrote in to play. So their recommendations end up being some variation 1933 that the new “card and pencil set” would destroy the game. on discounting green fees, dumbing down the game with bigger He believed (as do I) that match play was a far superior game, holes or shorter yardages, or pushing people around the course especially for beginners and high handicappers. A bogey golfer in less time by using MMA fighters as marshall/bouncers. I doesn’t get to 90 by being disagree. one over par, eighteen It’s cheaper to play golf times. Their scorecard (my now than it was when I scorecard) goes par, bogey, was in high school. Sure, triple bogey, birdie, eight, there are high-end public par… and so on. If you’re courses who are charging playing match play, that more money than we were player has a reasonable in the 80’s, but there’s a chance of winning any ton of buck-a-hole golf out individual hole, or they there, and those courses might take a ten, but it aren’t full either. Cost-wise, only matters for that hole. it’s actually a great time to There are 18 individual be a golfer. games within the match – Players haven’t suddenly same as tennis, volleyball found the game too hard. and a dozen other sports. In fact, it’s never been By contrast, if I take a ten easier. I had to learn on on the 3rd hole in stroke forged irons with a sweet play, I’m sulking on the cart spot the size of a pin head, for the next three hours, and used a persimmon because my game is over. driver that was smaller The consultant said that this would really bring in the golfers. Imagine knowing that you than a spring potato. With couldn’t possibly win the perimeter weighting and Stanley Cup because you had one terrible game in October. drivers the size of my skull, not to mention ball technology and Would you still be having fun at Christmas? The popularity of far better playing conditions – a beginner today has it pretty golf expanded steadily for hundreds of years, until stroke play darned easy. became the norm, and it started declining within a generation – And I’m not buying the time thing either. Sure, a hockey just sayin’. Never mind that course conditioning (as MacKenzie game is only three hours long, but it takes an hour of driving predicted) had to become near perfect, because the “card each way and we go for dinner first. Even a two-hour movie and pencil set are forever crying about what is fair, instead of comes with a dinner before and dessert after. Concerts have accepting the rub of the green.” an opening band, Monster Trucks have Pit Parties – so four or The goal to making any competitive undertaking fun, is five hours for an entertainment outing is actually the norm. to have the outcome in doubt for as long as possible. Ideally, Furthermore, there’s a course within fifteen minutes of pretty the last putt on the 18th green will matter to the outcome of much every house in southern Ontario – so there’s less driving the match. Match play gives a much greater chance of that and no need to leave early to beat the traffic. happening; but there are many other games based on points, We do lots of other things for entertainment that cost more, and skins, and scrambles, and partners that accomplish the are harder to do, and take just as long. I believe that the problem same goal. For the recreational player, stroke play gives the is that people have tried the game and not come back – because least potential amount of fun and involvement. When it’s all they weren’t having fun. Play by serious golfers is actually on the said and done, we produce a playing surface for a game. But increase, but play by recreational golfers is in serious decline. recently the popularity of that game at the recreational level Why is that? It wouldn’t matter if golf took two hours, was free, has waned. I propose that it’s our own fault – we changed the and had holes three feet across – if they ain’t having fun, they game. Let’s change it back. ■ ain’t coming back. Think back to the best time that you ever had
by Doug Breen, Superintendent GolfNorth Properties
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30 Green is Beautiful • Winter 2014